Bernie Borges' new book: Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing. Bernie's book aims to give a macro view of social media marketing with a focus on "what it is" and "how" small and medium size businesses (SMB) can develop a strategy, implement it and measure results.

Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing covers these topics:

Marketing 2.0What is Web 2.0 and Social Media?Think Like a Publisher: Content MarketingThe Lifecycle of Interaction in Social Media MarketingMeasuring Results in Social Media MarketingRisks in Social Media MarketingBenefits of Social Media MarketingCase Studies - SMBs Succeding with Social Media

We have invited Bernie Borges, the author of Marketing 2.0: Bridging the Gap between Seller and Buyers through Social Media Marketing to discuss his book. Bernie Borges is the Chief Find Officer of Find and Convert, an Inbound Marketing agency serving clients nationwide. Find and Convert helps companies get found on the web and build profitable relationships through search marketing and social media marketing strategies.

Bernie is a podcaster, blogger and frequent speaker on social media trends in business. Bernie is a native of New York, N.Y, and resides in Palm Harbor, Florida with family.

Bernie BorgesBlog Find and Convert Twitter BernieBay

Buyers learn to trust the sellers who engage in authentic relationships

Ambal Balakrishnan: Bernie, it is a great pleasure to discuss your Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book. Thanx for finding time out of your very busy schedule to provide your valuable insights to our readers. Tell us about what Find and Convert does?

Bernie Borges: Find and Convert is an inbound marketing agency. We create winning marketing strategies on the web for our clients through search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), social media, content marketing and web analytics. Our clients are mostly SMBs marketing on a national and some international scale. We are meticulous about measuring results that matter for our clients.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What prompted you to embark on writing Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book?

Bernie Borges: I started Find and Convert in 2002. In 2006 I started to hear about "Web 2.0." As I got involved in social networking I began to recognize the opportunities for business. But, I observed that most SMBs are very conservative in their thinking. Most clients and audiences I spoke to had interest in learning about social media but were not acting on it. I wrote this book to communicate that marketing on the social web is a mindset. Business owners and executive must first understand the mindset before they embrace the tactics comprised of blogs, social networks, Twitter, video, photos, etc. The mindset must come before the tactics.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Give us the background of how you gained an interest in Social Media Marketing?

Bernie Borges: I have been speaking on Internet marketing strategies for about five years. I enjoy speaking and use it as part of my marketing strategy to gain awareness and capture business opportunities. Around 2006 as Web 2.0 topics began to gain popularity I began speaking on them. Around 2007 the Web 2.0 topic evolved to social media. As I embraced social media, I began to speak more on it, which eventually gave me the inspiration to write a book for SMBs to help them develop a strategy for social media.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Please walk us through the book writing life-cycle. How did it evolve and its journey from concept to launch?

Bernie Borges: In December 2007 I was the keynote speaker at a breakfast event in Tampa. I spoke on Web 2.0/Social Media Marketing to an audience of about 130 executives, many of whom were CEO of SMBs. After the event I was overwhelmed by the reaction. The interest level in learning more about "social media marketing" was very high. Several people in the audience suggested I write a book. After a couple of weeks I decided to do it. I wrote the book over ten months. I conducted research to find interesting case studies. I didn't take any time off from running my agency. All the while, I shared with my social network about my book writing mostly through my blog and Twitter. Now, I'm podcasting, blogging, Tweeting and releasing a series of releases around the book. I'm also doing short videos. I'm giving away the entire book in PDF format to anyone who listens to my podcast introduction on my blog.

Bernie Borges: Good question. The primary target audience is the SMB (small/medium size business) owner and their management staff. The target reader is someone who knows something about social media, but not much about how to use it productively in his/her business. People in larger businesses who have not yet embraced social media marketing will also benefit from the book. Anyone who doesn't yet understand how we got here and where we are, and the risks of not adopting a mindset for social media marketing will benefit from the book.

Ambal Balakrishnan: How is the marketing landscape different than what it was a decade back?

Bernie Borges: The marketing landscape a decade ago is different today but not as different than it will be in another decade. I believe we are in a transition period. I reference this in the book. In the past several decades sellers have marketed to buyers using interruptive techniques. Buyers had no choice but to deal with unwanted cold calls and advertisements. Now, buyers have filters. Even the commuter on a busy train or bus can tune into her iPod and tune out all the billboard ads. My caller ID blocks unwanted calls. My satellite radio has no ads. My Tivo allows me to skip all the commercials Etc. The buyer is in control now. In another decade sellers will realize that few of these traditional marketing techniques work anymore. Delivering great content to buyers and engaging buyers collaboratively is the new marketing. But, we are still in the early stages of this transition. It will take another five or ten years for sellers to fully grasp this paradigm shift.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are the benefits and risks of Social Media Marketing?

Bernie Borges: The benefits are that buyers learn to trust the sellers who engage in authentic relationships. The influence of people in a community is very valuable. Sellers can compete against anyone even if they are small compared to larger competitors. The wisdom of the community is so strong that the playing field is level. The risks are not doing it right or not doing it at all. Sellers who don't understand the importance of being authentic and building relationships can misuse social platforms and get negative results. Expecting quick results is risky. Measuring the wrong metrics is risky. Not measuring the value of relationships is risky. The biggest risk is what I call social media abstinence.

Bernie Borges talks about his book Marketing 2.0

Ambal Balakrishnan: Give us few examples of businesses that are great at Social Media Marketing?

Bernie Borges: My favorite SMB story is Indium Corp. They are a manufacturing company with a very technical product. About five years ago their Marcom director, Rick Short, began blogging. He recruited an engineer to start blogging. Eventually other engineers started blogging. Today they have ten blogs staffed by fifteen engineers. They also shoot video, most of which are entertaining. They produce so much great content that engages their buyer. As a result they have global awareness, great trust, great sales leads and great ROI. They've also eliminated many of their outdated marketing strategies like direct mail and cold calling. Another example is Epic Change, a charity focused on building schools in Tanzania for economically deprived children. They Tweet, blog and generally promote their cause on the social web. I learned of them during their Tweetsgiving fundraiser in Thanksgiving 2008. They raised $10,000 two days before Thanksgiving through Twitter. Their marketing budget is zero. It's 100% social media marketing. It's awesome! My book has several other inspiring stories of SMBs succeeding with social media marketing strategies.

Ambal Balakrishnan: How can a firm measure the ROI on dollars and time invested in Social Media Marketing?

Bernie Borges: Any business can measure social media marketing results in several ways. Some of the metrics include RSS subscribers, website visitors from social media platforms, landing pages with calls to action that are uniquely tied to certain social media. Another way to measure is the increase in incoming traffic to a website for the company name. If the sales process becomes shorter, that's a sign of increased trust. Another metric is the sentiment of the brand, the industry, their products, their staff, etc. Software tools are required to measure results coupled with logic and common sense. Some of the success metrics are qualitative too, which some businesses struggle with.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What is one change you recommend for businesses to do better in their Social Media Marketing initiatives?

Bernie Borges: To focus on building relationships. Don't expect to get sales results quickly. It's like becoming a member of an exclusive club. If you join a club and expect to get results quickly its members won't accept you. You must be authentic and engage members of the club. You must offer them reasons to trust you and want to get to know you. This is exactly the mindset that is needed to be successful in marketing on the social web. It's a mindset paradigm shift.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What are the 3 key lessons you want readers to take away from your book?

Bernie Borges: 1. Find communities on the web that you should engage. 2. Provide these communities consistently good content. 3. Focus on building relationships and trust with these communities.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What one "get started on right way" change do you recommend to the reader of your book?

Bernie Borges: Commit to spending time on the social web every day, even if you start with five minutes per day. Eventually, as comfort increases and community engagement increases more time will be spent each day. The amount of time varies for everyone. The key is to do it consistently every day and you'll start to see results.

Ambal Balakrishnan: What kind of projects are you involved in when you are not writing, blogging, speaking, or consulting with marketers?

Bernie Borges: I run my inbound marketing agency. We work with SMBs every day helping them achieve their marketing goals through the web and integrating these plans into all their marketing activities.

Ambal Balakrishnan: Bernie, thanks for taking the time to discuss your book and sharing your insights with us.

Bernie Borges: Thanks Ambal.

Bernie discusses his new book at Marketing 2.0: My New Social Media Marketing Book. Bernie warns that the biggest risk is not taking the risk at all and staying away from social media. Read his post on The Risk of Social Media Abstinence. Check out great list of Podcasts and Videos on Inbound Marketing Strategies, SEO, Social Media Marketing and more from Bernie Borges .

Over to you...

What is the one lesson from Bernie Borges' Marketing 2.0 Social Media Book you will put to use in your Content Marketing?

Ambal has robust 17+ years experience working at and partnering with high-profile technology companies in both B2B and B2C marketplaces building scalable, reliable, high performance products (both hardware and software) for business with multi-billion dollar in annual revenue. She has done various roles that includes engineering, program management, business development, strategy and marketing for premium and fast growing product divisions at Cisco, Telecordia (prior name Bell Labs) and strategic marketing consulting firm ClickDocuments. At Cisco, she focused on world wide marketing and positioning of Cisco's Cloud & Data Center switching business. She brings both strong engineering & marketing skills with verticals experience from many different industries.
Ambal received her Masters in Computer Science from Purdue University and an MBA in Marketing, Strategy and Entrepreneurship from Wharton University of Pennsylvania.
Ambal is an avid reader and hiker. Her hiking pursuits have taken her to several mountains including Mt. Whitney at 14,500 feet (which she managed to climb in 1 day).
Ambal lives in Austin, TX with her family of 3 boys (that includes her husband!) and a border-collie+lab mix dog named Rainbow.

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